Closing statements in the trial of 59-year-old Michael Ferreira of Salem, N.H. are scheduled for Thursday in Middlesex Superior Court.

Prosecutors say Ferreira and two of his friends abducted 15-year-old John McCabe after a dance in Tewksbury, Mass., in September 1969, bound him, taped his eyes and mouth, and left him in a Lowell field where he died. The medical examiner ruled McCabe died of asphyxiation due to strangulation.

Authorities say the suspects wanted to teach McCabe a lesson for flirting with one of their girlfriends.

Ferreira's lawyer says a key witness case is a liar whose version of events doesn't match the evidence.